The existing Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) includes service activation and control functionality to perform two basic tasks: (1) service delivery, i.e., the provision and modification of telephone services; and (2) service assurance, i.e., maintenance of the system. This service activation and control functionality takes the form of complex hardware and software which must be physically manipulated by human operators at remote stations, i.e., service and operations centers such as ESAC (Electronic Service Assistance Center), RCMAC (Recent Change Memory Administration Center), NOC (Network Operations Center), complex translations, business office, etc. These stations are operative to access systems, i.e. databases which are known and generally referred to by those skilled in the art as the "old legacy systems". These systems include, for example, CRIS (Customer Record Information System), SOPAD (Service Order Processing And Delivery), etc.
These numerous service and operations centers and their corresponding physical organizations of personnel, all communicate with one another to provide and modify telephone services for PSTN subscribers. A simple residential telephone service request thus requires input and interaction from dozens of employees at multiple locations resulting in a process which is excessively time-consuming, expensive, inefficient and highly prone to error.
Against this background, telephone service providers have long recognized that any marginal profit which might be realized from upgrading a residential subscriber's telephone service may, as a commercial reality, be vastly outweighed by the direct time and labor costs incurred in providing the requested service or change. Consequently, telephone service providers, and in particular, Advanced Intelligent Network (AIN) service providers, who have the technical capability to provide very powerful personalized telephone services, have heretofore been economically inhibited from providing such services to their subscribers. Instead, telephone service providers have been forced to offer only those services which can be mass-marketed, or otherwise economically justified.
It is understood that the above-noted economic obstacles to providing powerful personalized telephone services may be overcome through automation of the service activation and control functions. In such an automated system, the physical manipulation of these operations is shifted directly to the telephone subscriber. The complex web of physical organizations of persons and places which have conventionally performed the same functions are therefore substantially reduced, if not eliminated, along with their attendant costs.
The general solution to the above problem is thus simple in theory and as a result, has long been contemplated by PSTN designers. The practical implementation of that solution, however, has not been apparent. Until the present invention, the practical implementation has evaded PSTN designers. More particularly, in order to effectively shift the data manipulation functions to the telephone subscriber, an appropriate interface must be provided and properly configured to allow the subscriber to easily navigate the many powerful telephone services which are available, especially when deployed in Advanced Intelligent Networks.
Consider, for example, the approach taken in U.S. Pat. No. 4,611,094 (Asmuth et al) which teaches a method for defining an individual service for an individual subscriber. In that method, a telephone service is performed by a subscriber program resident on an external host computer which a subscriber defines using conventional programming sequences. As readily seen, while this method permits a new individual customer service to be configured without modifying the telephone network switching system software, the applicability of the method is severely limited. Most significantly, the method requires that every customer who uses the service have an individual host computer external to the telephone system. Still further, designing a service in accordance with the teachings of the '094 patent requires a computer programmer to write program sequences to define as well as modify the selected service.
Similarly, U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,588 (Babson, III et al.) teaches a system and process for providing programmable or customized customer telephone information services. Like Asmuth, however, Babson requires the use of an external personal computer (PC) having similar programming drawbacks.
Traditional Dual-Tone Multi-Frequency (DTMF) interfaces, which are typically found on Customer Premises Equipment (CPE), have also proven difficult and exceedingly time-consuming to use. Consider, for example, AIN services which, as referenced above, are highly powerful and might take extensive prompts by the user to navigate the required logic necessary to implement or modify even a basic telephone service. The traditional DTMF interface has thus proven unacceptable from a human factor standpoint, especially for time-of-day applications.
Consequently, a need has developed to provide a system and method for providing telephone service subscribers the capability to purchase, customize and modify telephone services. Such a system and method must incorporate a user-friendly interface which may be easily manipulated directly by PSTN service subscribers so as to reduce or eliminate the need for interaction with telephone service provider personnel.